A Pony's Guide To Raising An Alien Octopus-Girl

Chapter 1, Part 1: In Which Tentacled Trouble Is Discovered

Quill had always enjoyed the beach, the smell of the saltwater, the sound of waves crashing upon rock and sand. The sound of the gulls cawing and squawking at one another mixing with the sounds of the water, created a rather pleasant cacophony; if a bit uncontrolled.

The feeling of warm, damp sand beneath his hooves and rushing through his stark white coat was familiar and welcomed, and the feeling of the ocean breeze through his black and yellow striped mane was pleasant if somewhat smelly.

Many a time he had come to this beach before, it wasn’t too far from his house so he could fly there just as easily as he could trotting.

Flying was nice of course, but Quill had always enjoyed keeping his hooves on the ground if possible. Not to say he wasn’t proud of his wings, they were powerful and built for taking off at great speed and performing astonishing aerial maneuvers, and he was a rather adept flier.

That day however he had decided to stick to the ground, and it was because of that choice his life ended up being forever changed, now whether it had been changed for the worse or the better; well, he would end up asking himself that quite a lot over the years that followed.

With a contented sigh, Quill turned his gaze back to the beach behind him, the pier and the groups of ponies splashing around and building sand castles were far off, the sounds of their mirth sufficiently scattered by the breeze, making them nothing but a whisper at such a distance.

The sun would be setting soon, it was just starting to appear to dip down into the water on the horizon, and the resulting effect was a spectacular show of oranges and yellows dappled across the surface of the water.

Quill had come out to the beach to brainstorm, he had hit a wall on his current novel; as evident by his cutie mark, writing was his forte, however that didn’t mean he wouldn’t hit blocks occasionally. He had decided that maybe a stroll on the beach would do well to give him some story ideas; or at least ideas that were a step towards getting past his writers block.

As he continued on, the beach slowly began to grow thinner in width, and cliffs began to rise up opposite the water, giant, jagged, grey walls of stone protruding from the earth like the spines of some great dragon, buried beneath the dirt centuries ago.

Eventually his will to continue traveling was lost, and he simply plopped down in the sand, and took in his surroundings.

Quill was well away from the part of the beach most frequented now, to his right; the pier had become only a spec in the distance and the ponies on the beach all but invisible. In front of him, the waves slid lazily up the sand, crawling quickly upwards and almost touching his hooves, before rapidly retreating backwards, as if deciding against their actions at the last moment.

Behind him, the stone cliffs rose up high, looming over the beach and casting the slightest of shadows over the water, their grey coloring broken only by the occasional patch of shrubbery or grass growing out from a crack in the stone, gently swaying in the breeze.

To his left, was more beach, seeming to go on and on until it disappeared into the horizon, broken up only by a group of large rocks jutting up out of the ground and forming a sort of miniature “C” shaped alcove that stuck out like a sore thumb against the otherwise uninterrupted sand.

“Dammit!”

Quill let out a short cry of frustration and fell backwards onto the sand, splaying his front hooves out to his sides with a dull “fwump” as they hit the sand. He stared up at the cloudy blue skies above, watching as a trio of gull flew across and disappeared over the tall cliffs behind him.

Writing was hard.

“Maybe I need something new, like…a new plot-twist introduced into the story…” He said, thinking out loud.

The story he was writing was about two young foals who manage to hit a computer with magic, and then as a result, their video game proceeds to pour out of the computer and into their world, and understandably it would cause quite a bit of chaos for the two young protagonists.

He had everything he needed too, it was all there, the action, the characters, the setting and the plot…he just couldn’t seem to figure out how to put it all together the right way!

Quill let out a snort and closed his eyes, taking in the sounds and the smells around him; the sea breeze, the gulls, the water against the sand. It was calming and peaceful; two things that were very badly needed when one was writing you know.

He relaxed into the sand upon which he laid, it was warm and pleasant, like the embrace of a loved one in a way, almost like a-

“GAH!”

There was a sudden and sharp pinch on his front left hoof, instinctively, he recoiled and jolted up, which in turn sent the creature responsible for the pain sailing into the air before it came to rest on the sand a ways away.

It was a crab, and if crabs could look smug, this one would have.

Its smooth shell was a bright red, almost gleaming in the light of the setting sun, it glared at him and held up powerful looking claws, snapping them as a warning that it was not a beast to be trifled with, this crab was a powerful and proud creature, capable of bringing down it’s attackers with the very claws it brandished so proudly, like a warrior brandishing his sword! It was quite an intimidating sight.

Or at least, it would have been.

If the crab hadn’t only been about two inches wide, and barely an inch tall.

“You little…” Quill grumbled, rubbing his poor hoof and glaring at the tiny monster.

“Shoo!”

The crab held its ground.

With a huff, he flicked a bit of sand at the small crustacean, and that seemed to do the trick as far as getting it to move away.

He eyeballed the crab sternly as it skittered away, crawling up the rocks protruding from the sand to Quill’s left and finding what it deemed a suitable perch to watch over its recently lessened territory.

For a moment longer he watched the crab, and just as he was about to close his eyes again, he saw something strike out of seemingly nowhere and the crab was no more. It had been nothing more than a scarlet-red blur, but it had been quick enough and managed to go unnoticed long enough the crab hadn’t ever even know it was there!

Curiosity getting the better of him, Quill slowly righted himself and made his way over to the C-shaped formation of stone, As he neared, he noticed that inside the formation was a small pool of water; previously hidden from view.

He laid his eyes upon the flat-topped rock upon which the crab had previously stood, scanning in intently as if the crustacean were hiding somewhere on it, but alas; it was nowhere to be found.

“Huh…” Dismissing his want to try and find the crab, Quill scanned the small pool below him.

The inside of the rocks were covered in small groupings of barnacles and other strange growths, long, yellowed strands of seaweed were stuck in crevices here in there, having been caught after being brought in by a high-tide.

The water in the tide pool actually looked rather deep, despite being strangely murky. In fact there was sand swirling around in the water as if something had just kicked it up not seconds ago. Quill wondered if maybe some fish had been caught in there.

There were a few small crabs latched to the rocks surrounding the tide pool, but they were all blue, the one he had seen was red, so he didn’t pay much attention to them.

The rocks sloped downwards into the pool of murky water, uninterrupted by anything inside of it other than the two, large, turquoise eyes currently staring up at him in wonder.

Wait what.

The cry of shock that followed was most likely heard for a mile around.

Quill fell backwards and scrambled away from the tide pool, his eyes wide and his heart beating frantically. He didn’t even care that he was getting sand all in his fur he just wanted to get the hell away from whatever large monster had been sitting in that tide pool, those eyes were big!

Frantically, he righted himself, not even bothering for a second glance back at the pool as he unfurled his wings and readied himself for a sudden and powerful liftoff, he would be getting out of here before whatever that was decided to-

“Bagah!”

He stopped cold, eyes wide and heart still pounding, but hesitating in his takeoff.

There was silence, well, other than the normal beach noises. However “Bagah” was not a normal noise you heard at the beach; that was the kind of noise you heard from a newborn foal or something!

There was a slapping sound, like somepony was hitting a kitchen table with a wet rag or something of that sort, that definitely wasn’t a normal beach sound, and in addition, it was coming from that tide pool!

Quill slowly folded his wings against his side and turned his head back to look at the rocks behind him, those rocks harbored eyes, big ones, ones unlike he had ever seen on any sea creature before, and that meant it probably wasn’t something he should-

“Ahbahgabah!”

“What…?” He said softly, perking his ears up and slowly beginning to make his way back over to the tide pool, as curiosity yet again took hold.

Cautiously, he approached the rocks, just barely peeking over them enough that he could get a look inside.

There they were, right where he had left them.

Two large, white eyes, with large turquoise irises.

They caught sight of him and held his gaze firmly, neither pony nor…whatever this thing was, breaking the gaze, until the two eyes seemed to rise up a bit, revealing bit more of the round, somewhat feminine, nose less face they belonged to.

The face bore thin looking lips, and without the presence of a nose, it looked very alien and strange, the turquoise eyes stared up at him intently, unblinking and unmoving as they slowly rose up out of the water, further revealing the features of whatever it was they belonged to.

Where one would expect hair or a mane to be, instead sat a mass of what could only be described as tentacles; whose movements were the definition of sleepy looking, they were a striking scarlet-red that only appeared to be a few shades deeper than that of the creature’s squishy-looking skin.

By this point, the beastie’s head was fully out of the water, and it was roughly the size one would expect the head of a newborn foal to be, shiny skin nearly gleaming in the sunlight as it continued to hold a gaze filled with curiosity that matched that of the white pony looking down at it.

“Bah.”

Quill yelped and fell back onto the sand once more, sending grains of it flying left and right and out from under him as he scrambled back a bit; startled by the sudden yet simple utterance of such gibberish.

“W-what in Equestria…?”

Quill hadn’t ever seen anything like this creature before, now that he thought about it, it looked similar to an octopus, but no octopus he had ever seen looked like…that.

“Ahba?” The creatures tiny voice came again, sounding much like that of a baby.

Animals didn’t make baby noises, this was not an animal, this was some sort of…of monster, maybe some type of sea dragon or something, or one of those Kraken things he had read about in the story books?

No, no way. Those monsters were huge, with scales and sharp teeth, and claws and long scaly bodies! They were not smooth-faced, baby-noise-making, octopus-things.

Now feeling a bit more confident that whatever this was, wasn’t big enough to eat him, Quill righted himself once more and peered over the rocks, finding that same, reddish-orange face peering curiously back at him.

“What…are you, exactly?” He asked slowly, as if he were to get a response.

The octopus-creature simply stared at him expressionlessly.

Slowly tearing his gaze from this strange new creature, Quill inspected the tide pool it occupied, only the realizing that the tide pool was an “O” rather than a “C”, maybe this strange creature had gotten trapped when the tide came in, and hadn’t been able to climb out?

“BAH!”

Quill flinched a bit at this, but managed to refrain from falling backwards into the sand yet again.

The octopus-creature raised up a bit more, exposing its upper body and now only submerged to its waist, the motion of what Quill could only assume were more tentacles now barely visible below the water.

The creature was built rather slender now that he could see its scarlet-red body, not quite shaped but not exactly stocky either, two thin arms ending in three fingered hands hung lazily at its sides. While its face was a light scarlet-red, the color darkened as you looked further down the nude, slimy looking body.

This thing didn’t look dangerous at all, if anything it looked like it was something that would rather give you a hug and cuddle you rather than try to bring you harm; granted it did look somewhat alien, but still.

It didn’t seem at all afraid of him either; one would think that this creature would be just as frightened to see Quill as Quill was to see it.

“Do you like…want out of here?” He asked, again, as if he were expecting to get an answer that wasn’t gibberish; and at the same time realizing that was kind of a stupid question.

“Doopa.” It stated flatly.

“Hmm…” Quill gave this creature a curious look, thinking for a moment, before turning his gaze out to the ocean, the sun already halfway set into the glassy water, far out on the horizon.

For a moment his gaze flitted back and forth between the creature and the ocean, maybe if he figured out a way to get it out of this tide pool, it would go back to where it came from and he could just forget about this whole freaky ordeal.

He couldn’t just leave it there, he had a conscience you know, and you know, morals…

“Do you…want to go out there?” He asked, giving the nose less creature a look of curiosity and raising a hoof in the direction of the vast and expansive ocean.

It only cocked its head in response, hair-tentacles gently swaying to the side as it tilted.

Quill hooded his eyes and sighed.

“Celestia, what am I doing?” He muttered.

Of course, Celestia didn’t respond, however the octopus-creature did, letting out a slightly cheerful sounding  “Dahba!” Extending its arms out and making grabby motions with its triangular-fingered hands.

The hands actually reminded Quill vaguely of a starfish, only there were three fingers rather than the eight or so starfish had, and he could now see tiny suckers lining the underside of each one.

“You want me to lift you…out?” He said slowly, suddenly becoming uncertain and uneasy as this strange creature made little grabby motions with its strange hands, lifting itself up a bit more out of the water to the point he could see that it’s lower half was perfectly resemblant of an octopus, tentacles taking the place of legs and trying to get a grip on the rocks.

“Wait if you have suckers on those things, why can’t you just pull yourself out?”

As if on cue, the octopus-creature placed two tentacles on the rocks in front of it, and began to slowly crawl upwards, using the other tentacles to help pull itself up more. However once four tentacles had been firmly latched to the rocks, balance was very obviously lost and soon the slimy looking creature tumbled back into the water below with a frustrated cry.

Quill winced a bit as he watched it hit the water, and for a moment he felt something in his stomach do a flip, however that quickly subsided upon seeing the creature seemingly unharmed.

Its current expression however, was the epitome of pouting.

“Gahba!” It whined, slapping its tentacles against the water in frustration and proceeding to cross its arms and don the most “pouty” pout face in the history of all things pout-related.

It was surprisingly adorable.

“You aren’t strong enough are you? You must like…be a baby or something?” Quill said softly, deciding it safe to assume the child-like babble it had demonstrated thus far to be nothing more than just that; Child-like babble, rather than some alien language, and that this was indeed an infant.

What was he doing?

Why was he here, interacting with a creature unlike anything ever recorded before in the history of Equestria; that he knew of.

Why had he not just run away and been none the wiser.

No, he had to get curious, and then he had to come to the conclusion this thing was a baby, and he knew for a fact if he just left he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.

Besides…it was kinda cute; in a weird, tentacle-y, octopus-ish kinda way.

“I’m going to end up regretting this, aren’t I?” He asked.

The octopus-creature looked up at him with intelligent looking eyes, staring into his own as if to say.

“Ha-ha, yeah you probably are.”

But of course, it didn’t say that, instead it replied with a “Ahbooga.” And proceeded to grope at the air in Quills direction, as if asking for “Uppies”

Cautiously, Quill propped himself against one of the rocks and leaned over.

And with a simple; if shaky, extension of two front legs, two lives became forever entwined.

The unfamiliar and surprisingly warm feeling of sucker-lined fingers latching onto his hooves made Quill shudder ever so slightly, steeling himself and doing his best not to squeal like a school-filly who found a worm, he lifted the octopus-creature up and out of the tide pool, balancing on his back hooves long enough to turn and set it down in the sand outside the stone prison.

Once the creature was set down in the sand, Quill was able to get a good look at it.

From the hips down, the creature was entirely octopus, eight thick tentacles held it upright; the tip of each one seeming to almost move of its own accord. Above the waist however was a very different matter, and it looked unlike most anything he had ever seen in his life. The body was a bit thinner than where the tentacles all came together, and its arms hung down a little bit past the waist. The hair-tentacles seemed to have a mind of their own almost like the tips of the leg tentacles, idly curling and moving about in a sleepy manner and hanging down to just past the shoulders.

The octopus-creature seemed to sense it was being studied, and let out a short “Gah.”

Quill sat down on his haunches and raised an eyebrow, ruffling his wings a bit as he did, he turned his gaze out to the ocean and raised a hoof out in that very direction, then turned his gaze back to his slimy little friend.

“Off you go then.” He stated rather abruptly.

The creature looked nonplussed, gazing out at the ocean for a moment before turning its gaze back to Quill.

“Nah.”

“Nah? What do you mean ‘nah’?” He said, reeling back a bit and wondering if it had been coincidence that the babble sounded like a negative or if it was intentional.

“Dappa.” It stated flatly, moving its tentacles in a manner that could only be described as strange, in order to slowly move itself over to him.

Quill let out a sheepish chuckle and took a step back. “N-no, you go in the ocean, run along, go…find your, uh…pack!”

Did octopi run in packs?

He wasn’t sure, all he knew was this thing was currently doing some sort circular writhing thing with its tentacles that was moving it towards him, and he was slowly scooting backwards on his rear through the sand in order to keep away.

The octopus-creature seemed un-phased by this, and continued trying to get closer to him, deep turquoise eyes fixed on his own red ones as he scooted backwards in the sand, trying his best to keep away from the tiny assailant.

Shortly after, however the back of Quill’s head was introduced to the rocks that this very creature had been trapped in, and they did well to stop him from evading the octopus-creature any longer, as well as giving him a bit of a sting

He winced and shut his eyes from the sudden dull pain, momentarily forgetting about the octopus-girl as he brought a hoof up to the back of his head to rub it.

The unsettling sensation of suckers gripping his legs and chest brought him back to reality rather quickly.

Upon opening his eyes again, Quill found the octopus-creature to be perched atop his stomach, and staring him in the eyes, only a few inches away.

He didn’t freak out, or push it off, or really even do anything.

He just stared back.

Being up this close allowed him to see all the little details on the creatures skin, it was uncannily smooth, only the tiniest traces of little bumps here and there interrupting the otherwise smooth skin, and the fact it didn’t have a nose was rather disturbing, but he found himself starting to get used to it already.

What really struck him though, were its eyes.

They looked so…intelligent, and like they held so much potential to them. He wasn’t sure why he kept hanging on the eyes, they were so large and unlike anything he had ever seen, but he found them so entrancing and wonderful…

“What are you…?” He said softly.

His response was rather unexpected and unorthodox.

“Bah.”

And suddenly there was a sucker-covered hand clamped on his nose, and he found himself surprisingly calm and cool about that.

“Pwease wet go ob me” He said flatly, staring back at this small creature with hooded eyes.

“Ahah!” It exclaimed, curling its lips into what was undeniably a smile.

So this thing could smile, oh joy.

Gently as he could, Quill took the creatures hand and removed it from his nose. “How about we not do that?”

“Gah?”

Quill was just about to uselessly respond, when he noticed something catch this creatures eye, its head snapped over to the left and its hair-tentacles seemed to become slightly more active, making little grabbing motions in the direction their owner was facing.

Following the gaze of his little friend, Quill found the object of interest to be a small, red, crab; much like the one he had seen before, it was busy picking away at a the sand with purpose unknown to all but the small crustacean.

Turning his gaze back to the small creature on top of him, he laid eyes on it just in time to see it pounce.

The octopus-creature leapt; or tumbled off more like, landed on its stomach and scrambled for the unsuspecting crab, smacking a suckered hand down on top of it and holding it firmly.

“Oh, so you’re fast, would you look at-“

“Crunch”

“Oh.”

The crab was no more, at least half of it wasn’t. The octopus creature now held half a crab, the other half currently being chewed up, and the one doing the chewing looked more than pleased.

Quill shuddered a bit, and eyed the creature as it ate. Its leg tentacles squirmed a bit and he found himself wondering if there was like a break down there like you would expect of an octopus or…

One incredibly red face later, he was certain that there was no beak, and that it was actually a she.

Trying to ignore the fact he had just looked directly at an aliens reproductive system, he thought it best to right himself before it…or, she, decided to reattach to his chest.

Quill righted himself just as the second and final “Crunch” was heard, signaling that the creature was indeed eating, and upon turning to face her once again, he found she was already upright again and staring up at him, a small bit of crab sitting in the corner of her mouth.

The two stared at each other in silence for a moment, neither on moving, as if trying to relay some telepathic message to one another.

Only the sound of the ocean waves sloshing against the beach and the gulls cawing every so often broke the silence.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the silence was broken.

The octopus-girl took her version of a step towards Quill.

“No, no, no, no!” He said sternly, as if suddenly understanding what he thought she wanted.

“Bah?”

“You, live in the ocean.” He said with narrowed eyes, jabbing a hoof gently at her.

In response, she grabbed his hoof in sucker-covered hands and proceeded to latch her jaws firmly onto his hoof, Quill had expected this to hurt considering she bit right through a crab, therefore she must have powerful jaws, but in reality is was more like…a nom, rather than a bite, it was soft.

“W-what are you doing?”

He felt an unnaturally slimy tongue lick against his hoof in response; was he being tasted or something?

“Listen, you need to like…go home.”

Another lick.

“Then can you please let go of my hoof so I can go home?”

Nothing in response, she simply remained latched on with sucker-covered fingers firmly attached, and jaws around his hoof.

“I am not bringing you home with me.” He deadpanned, hooding his eyes.

The octopus-girl’s jaws squeezed his hoof a bit, not enough for it to hurt, but enough he was efficiently reminded they were strong.

“A-are you threatening me?” He said with an airy laugh, looking nervously down at her.

“Mhhp.”  She mumbled in reply, staring blankly up at him.

“W-what am I supposed to tell ponies? ‘Oh, I found her on the beach; she could be an alien or something but oh well’”

No reply.

“W-what about the Princesses! If they end up finding out I’m keeping an alien or something I could get in a whole lot of-“

In that moment his hoof was released completely, the only reminder the octopus-girl had been formerly latched to it was a bit of slime left behind, now instead of a bite however, he was being…hugged.

“…Trouble.” He finished, looking down at the octopus-girl currently the leg she hadn’t been biting, and doing so rather firmly.

Her thin, scarlet-red arms were wrapped around his leg in a manner that could only have been described as loving, and she was nuzzling him; only without the nose that was usually required for nuzzling.

He actually felt his heart melt a bit.

“How am I supposed to feed you, I don’t know how much you need to eat, a-and it isn’t like I can just go to the market and buy crabs, ponies don’t eat crabs!” He protested softly; even though he knew full well that there was a griffin market in town that sold seafood aplenty. At this point he was just trying to convince himself to not take whatever this girl was home with him; he really wanted to though.

“But, I can’t…”

The octopus-girl looked up at him with an expression that could be described only as innocent and helpless, still hugging his leg and staring up at him with those astonishing turquoise eyes.

“This is insane…what am I doing?” He asked, staring down at the octopus-girl latched so affectionately to his leg.

“Gaba.”

Quill let out a sigh of defeat and sat down in the sand. He knew he shouldn’t, every ounce of common sense in him said “Do not take home an alien.” However there was another part of him screaming yes, he wasn’t sure why, or for what reason…but he felt like something was calling him to adopt this creature under his care, not necessarily because it was part of some great destiny, simply because he felt like she was his responsibility, he had rescued her after all, and this octopus-girl seemed rather friendly towards him..

He always had been a softie.

But what if she had a family, what if she was the child of some great and powerful undersea king, and he was going to start some great war that could destroy half of Equestria?

He knew nothing about her, he didn’t know if she needed certain things or how big she would grow…

So why was he currently trotting home with her?